"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee is brought to you by Miller Brewing Company, calling Milwaukee home since 1855. For the entire month of March, we're serving up fun articles on bars, clubs and beverages – including guides, the latest trends, bar reviews, the results of our Best of Bars poll and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!
Rock Bottom Brewery is once again doing a limited edition amber ale that arrives in Milwaukee this week and sales of this special brew will benefit local firefighters' charities in cities where Rock Bottom is rolling it out.
Fire Chief Ale – which made its first appearance in 1991 – is described as a medium-bodied amber ale with notes of caramel and toffee, and the initial keg tapping in Milwaukee takes place at Rock Bottom Brewery, 740 N. Plankinton Ave., fro 5 until 9 p.m., Thursday, March 8.
The limited release ale is paired with a series of "fiery" menu items, too, which you can see here.
At the tapping, $10 gets you two beers, a bowl of chili and Rock Bottom's Fire Chief Wings, along with live music, a 50/50 raffle and more.
The Milwaukee Fire Department Local 215 Auxiliary is taking part in the event and proceeds will benefit the Milwaukee Fire Department Local 215 Auxiliary Firefighter Cancer Prevention Initiative.
According to Rock Bottom, by 2015, sales of Fire Chief Ale raised more than $2 million for nonprofits selected by fire departments.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
